Giants have a reduced minimum distance with Lances as opposed to Humans and may equip Shields with them.

The Vales Shield is superior to most shields, boasting 3 Defense and 2 Protection, and is much easier to obtain than Shields of similar quality for Humans/Elves. It is also the only large shield in the game, benefiting the most from Shield Mastery (+30 Defense, +15 Protection and Magic Defense, and +5 Magic Protection at Rank 1), and reduces all damage received to 1 when coupled with Defense.

Giants have access to the Colin Plate Set, which grants the Giant both Stamina Reduction and Explosion Resistance when the full set is equipped.

Windmill has a slightly shorter cooldown compared to other races (3 seconds at Rank 9+).

Only Giants can learn Stomp, which is similar to Windmill or Rage Impact, but with a narrower range and no cooldown. The mastery title for Stomp is also the highest Strength-giving title.

Only Giants can learn Wind Guard, which greatly increases a Giant's defensive stats to the point where they are almost virtually immune to all damage (+100 Defense and Protection and +60 Magic Defense and Magic Protection at Rank 1).

Only Giants can learn Taunt, which allows Giants to attract monsters' attention in place of their teammates, and tank for them due to Giant's high defensive stats.

The number of hits/kills needed to train certain combat skills, such as Windmill, is lower for Giants than for Humans or Elves.

Combo Mastery provides more damage and more cooldown reduction than the other races (40% additional damage and 20% decreased cooldown at Rank 1) and does not receive penalties from wearing Heavy Armor.

Tumble provides further distance than the other races (1000 at Rank 1).

Obtaining a Giant

A Human player will be given an Assistant Giant Card, which acts like a Free Basic Card, by allying with the Giant race. To do so simply:

Talk to Krug, and you will obtain the alliance keyword if you do not have it already. Talk to him with it to obtain the Assistant Giant Card.

You may break the alliance with the Giants at any time and still keep the Giant card/character.

Only one Assistant Giant Card is given per account (i.e. you cannot use a 2nd human character and get another card by allying with it too).

Only one free Giant card will be given to each human character created with a "Free" character card. It is possible to obtain another by deleting all characters and pets on the account and obtaining a new Free Character Card.

It does not matter if you already have an Assistant Elf card. You can get both races as Assistant characters, however you can only ally once per 24 hours.

You cannot rebirth into a different race, even if you have a character card.

You will not receive an Assistant Giant card if you have an existing Giant character.

You may also obtain a Giant through use of an Ace, Hero or Elite Hero card.

History

Giants live in the snowfields of Physis in the town of Vales, to the north of the Rano region of Iria. According to King Krug, they existed before the Elves and they feel that they have stolen their land because all of Iria once belonged to them. Another source states that at one point, Giants and Elves worked together, but the reason for this breaking apart and hatred for each other remains officially unknown.

Past (Spoilers)

This part of the current article contains spoilers.

According to Kousai, during the time of the Birth of Iria, the "Great Irinid" created Giants and Elves.
When the Dragons raged, the Giants received a blessing; they were given sharp fangs of the Coyote. The Giants and Elves worked together to seal the Dragons in Zardine.
However, the two races eventually became greedy and wanted the Heart of Courcle, the object that Irinid used to build Iria, for themselves, believing that the object would make them powerful as the Irinid. War had established between the two factions for right of the artifact. Irinid, angered, immediately cursed all of Iria and Physis was left in a cold barren blizzard and starved the Giants.

As the Human/Fomorian war rages on, both Giants and Elves were given an opportunity to ally with Humanity. However, all but Weide refused the offer. Nonetheless, the Giants forged their alliance and Karpfen was sent to represent the Giants.
While Chapter 3 continues, the feud between the Giants and Elves drastically decreases. When the Heart of Courcle is found, the Giant/Elf war happened to be over.
During The Saga: Iria, the two races agree to work together to protect Erinn from threats, albeit with minor disputes.